Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Aidilfitri Shootout - Thank You All

We were lucky to be honest. There wasnt any last minute typhoon's tail hitting us on the photoshoot day. It was a bit cloudy and humid as i expected. A slight drizzle would have end the session early. But like i said, we were lucky.

Everyone turned up on time and most of the plans seems to flow accordingly. Within 2 hours the photoshoot was completed with 5 cars involved together.

I would like to thank the car owners that participated in the shootout :
  • Darry - Mitsubishi GSR Evolution 8
  • Sani - Honda Integra XSi
  • Desmond - Honda Civic EG
  • John - Honda Civic EK
  • Max - Nissan Silvia S15 Spec-R

A big thank you to Jason W. and Chris for extending the invitations to the car owners. Jason W., Chris and Darry were also doing their own photoshoots at the same time. They too had good shots from their DSLRs.

We had fun and also everyone coordinated themselves well.

Thank you all.

(The technical photography review will be in my other blog)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

B-Series OBD-0 Header : Old Story In Year 2009


I was sitting back and thinking about the OBD-0 header dilemmas after 20 years of the birth of the B16A engine. If you plan to run OBD-0 all the way, by all means the both 02 sensors should be connected and the ECU should read both sensors. The OBD-0 system reads the o2's in cylinders pairs. One o2 for cylinders 1 and 3, and the other o2 for cylinders 2 and 4.

Running one 02 sensor with the original OBD0 B16 ECU is NOT the way to go. The factory places them 8 to 10 inches from the exhaust ports. There are two OBD0 ECUs that use 2 O2 sensors, PR3 and PWO ECUs.

With the limited number of headers you can find with double o2 bungs, it is obvious you can see people start to become creative with their header mods. Buying a OBD-1 header and adding another bung on top does not solve the problem even with a wire extension. Say you have the one o2 hooked up to read a cylinder pair and one o2 on the down pipe. The first o2 will have the proper readings and adjust the a/f ratio properly. The o2 on the down pipe will have the mixed readings from all 4 cylinders. In turn, it wouldnt be able to make the exact changes for the perfect A/F ratio for the cylinders its supposed to be controlling.

If you stay with the OBD-0 ECU, you need to weld two bungs in the custom header up near the head on the original spot and wire the two O2 1 wire sensors. Problem solved. Just like the photo below.



Your Spoon, Mines, Mugen, Feels variant chips/ECUs might not even look for O2 sensors. Those were fuel-drinking racing programs and for the most part they dont care for O2 readings. So if you do not get a CEL, does not mean they are working fine. Just peep at your fuel gauge and start to worry.

If you care about mileage, then forget the variant chips and racing ECUs and install the 2 O2 sensors where they need to go and wire them correctly. Speaking of mileage, o2 sensors are wear and tear parts. When was the last time you change them? Old sensors likely gonna hike your mileage unknowingly.


Looking at the last photo is a common sight at your buy/sell local forums. OBD-0 headers sellings for more than RM1k in my opinion are just not worth the money. If you do not mind the condition, by all means proceed with the purchase. If you are a restorer, it'll need some work done. They dont make anymore aftermarket headers for the OBD-0 engines.

These days you can buy or custom a local header with less or the same price of the old, scraped, cracked and rusty header. By doing that at least you know the quality and prepare for wear and tear issues in the long run. Maybe some people are obsessed with the JASMA tag that is why anything non-JASMA aint worth to buy *chuckles*.

Getting an OBD-1 header with one o2 sensor bung is one story. Not clearing your cross member is another headache for EF/DA models. New OBD-1 race extractors have long and big primaries plus lower bends to the ground.

If you dont mind drilling and adding bungs on the OBD-1 header, then its fine. Getting a traction bar to clear the cross member is another additional cost.

If you plan to go for Hondata S300, be prepared to buy a few things for the conversion. Not cheap in total cost but you have full control of your engine setups in the long run. Driving an EF/DA can only be fun once you get all these bits and pieces completed before you even start to mod your engine seriously.

OBD-0 or OBD-1, your setup, your result. There will always be limitation if you limit yourself to OBD-0 setup. Likewise, the quest for more power will also be limited.

JASMA - The standards primarily to meet the legal regulations regarding vehicle and traffic law and safety standards for road vehicles, motor vehicle voluntarily. http://www.jasma.org/

Hawaii Streetcar Showoff 2009


This time i only found a few photos online for the recent Streetcar Showoff. Lack of coverage for this event. The best part of my searching, my favourite car was one of the photos. This was and is still the best looking AE86 Toyota Levin i have ever seen since 2007.

You guys may have your own choices but this is my all time favourite. ICHIBAN!!!


Nissan Skyline R35 GTR Spec V + HKS GT600

I have not seen a Spec V on the road yet.

I have not seen the HKS GT600 package kit in any shops around here yet.

SHH-Proshop Brunei has both.

http://www.shhproshopbrunei.com/2009/09/hks-gt600-racing-package-kit-and.html

The HKS GT600 Sport kit is named appropriately because it tunes the Nissan GT-R to close to 600 horsepower and 556 ft-lbs of torque. This Sport version contained the silencer instead of the straight pipe in the race version.

When i convert the kit to Malaysian Ringgit, it is around RM40k. Not including tuning i believe.

Friday, September 11, 2009

"Piston Besar"


The meaning to my title in English would be "Big Piston". These days it is quite common to use Ford original pistons especially the 83mm for the Honda B-series B16a/B18C and also the Mitsu/Proton 4G9X. Ford has the 83.5 oversized pistons and also another brand for Ford engines which is the 84mm which is commonly used by the Honda B20VTEC hybrid project.

This would be the bang-for-the-buck pocket rocket formula but the RISK is in the owner's hand. Typically the Honda/Proton block will be bored from 81mm to 83mm to fit the piston. The piston is then machined to fit the rods and prolly some custom job for deeper valve relief to suit the camshafts. No resleeving talk here.

Quite recently, people start to resleeve their blocks with local aftermarket sleeves to fit bigger pistons. No doubt there is a bit of cost there but at least it is safer than the common method. Long lasting gurantee, i wouldnt know unless its a bullet proof iron ductile sleeves that makes you sleep soundly at night. Unless i said.

The 2nd photo is the 4G93 block with the 83mm pistons hybrid with a 4G92 Mivec head. With a 1.9xxcc, fatter torque and higher compression you can definitely feel the power with this combination.

These pistons are awfully cheap than aftermarket pistons. People tend to resort this way due to the cheap and quick power. The long term and sometimes short term consequences are sometimes forgotten. Good tuning is compulsary at this stage.I have heard plenty of horror stories of engines failures from detonated cooked pistons to cracked sleeves due to the heat generated from the thin walls.

I have also known a few chaps that still runs with the 83mm after few years of using it with a strict discipline plus a light footed driving style that managed to survived till today.

The rest of the misfortuned as usual, rebuilt and sold their cars.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Proton Satria Neo Rally Super 2000

More links about it :
http://www.carstandard.com/blog/155/super-rally-satria-neo-s2000.html

http://www.gizmag.com/proton-satria-neo-s2000/11604/picture/78409/

Those that know me personally, would be nice IF, yeah K24 inside.

Jeff Upgrades

Last night Jeff had a fuel pump failure. He was stucked at his workplace and today he had to do something about it. He decided to upgrade to Walbro 255lph high pressure fuel pump and also at the same time his spark plugs.

He felt there was a bit of misfiring lately so he took a pack of Iriways. Wear and tear factors, something he has to accept and a BIG reminder to all of us.



NISEI Showoff 2009 : The Grand Final


Few weeks ago it was Nisei Showoff 2009. Ive never been to this event and i have gotten to know that it was the last one last week after they have done it every year for the last 10-15 years. Every year after Eibach Meet, this is the event i will wait for photos to be uploaded by the people attended the event. Gonna miss this event.

If you are wondering why i posted up this Altezza/IS300 instead of the sick K-series engines with ITBs is due to the fact this is the 2nd time ive seen an Altezza so damn effing nice to this date. The 1st one was a black one in Australia with a similar setup. I need to dig up my Autosalon magazine. For this blue Altezza/IS300, the colour scheme, the matching rims, the engine setup and a whole more good taste products being used on the car. 10/10 for this car :)

You can google more about Nisei Showoff and the photos for the last few years. Here are some of the links with good story about it :

Stickydiljoe

http://stickydiljoe.com/2009/08/17/nisei-showoff-2009-coverage-retrospectiv/

Motomavens

Japanese Nostalgic Car